Tag, You're It
by 67Sexy-Whales42
Summary: The rules are quite simple. Players will have twenty hours to escape from the hotel. Failure to do so will result in the building's detonation at the twentieth hour. We advise that you begin your escape as soon as possible and, of course, we wish you good luck. Rated M for violence and gore, and some language
1. Penthouse

**SO ANOTHER NEW STORY LOOK AT THAT HOW ABOUT THEM APPLES NEVER SAW THAT ONE COMING DID YA.**

**I'm insane.**

_Tag, You're It_

_Penthouse_

Len woke up in a room he'd never seen before. Orange light filtered in through a dusty window in the tint of morning, revealing a large, open room boasting various states of decay. Paint peeled from the walls and off of the ceiling. Lights dangled from single wires, rocking back and forth slowly from a breeze coming in through a hole in the wall. Len couldn't decide exactly where he was, but, after taking in the various broken furniture and paintings half hung on the wall, he figured he was in some sort of hotel room.

Len sat up on a bare mattress sagging in its frame. His neck and back were sore from sleeping in an unfamiliar place, and, for some reason, he found that his chest was aching. He rubbed a spot right above his heart. It hurt to touch. He looked down and noticed the blood stippling his shirt. Startled, he hurriedly unbuttoned it, a curse escaping his mouth.

"The hell…?" he muttered, rubbing at an oddly-shaped lump protruding from under his skin. The area around it was blotched with bruising, and a freshly sewn scar laced its unnatural edges.

Len's heart was pounding. He touched the bump again, wincing. It felt hard, manmade. He looked around and rubbed his forehead, trying desperately to remember how he had gotten there, in that unfamiliar place. All he drew were blanks. The last thing he remembered was walking into his dorm room. After that, there was nothing. Len's breathing grew rough. The only conclusion he could come up with was that someone, somehow, had knocked him out and cut him open to put this strange… _thing_ inside of him.

Len shot up to look out the window of the room, hoping desperately to recognize the street outside.

It was nothing he would have expected.

Len was high above the ground, looking down upon what looked to be the shattered remains of a city. There was not a single person on the street. Trash littered the sidewalks; signs crumpled to the ground and buildings barely stood with half of their structures missing. Len felt himself begin to swoon, and steadied himself against a lopsided lamp post. He needed to find a way out of that room

He glanced around for a door, found one, and made a dash for it. However, as soon as he touched the handle, it fell to the floor. He pushed then pulled on the door, and, after that didn't work, he beat against it and called for help, foolishly. He knew that he was alone in the building. Len scoured the room for another exit, maybe an air vent, but came up empty-handed.

The door opened.

Len whirled around and stared at the tall blonde in the doorway. She had long hair and blue eyes. As soon as they saw each other, the girl called out behind her. "Hey, guys! I found number Ten!"

Before he had a chance to think, the blonde pushed forward and grabbed him by the arm, dragging him out into a wide hallway.

There were eight others standing before him:

A brunette in an odd leather outfit that looked to be in her late twenties.

A pink-haired girl with blue eyes, crossing her arms self-consciously.

A green-haired boy and girl clinging close to one another.

A salmon-haired man appearing to be in his early forties.

A teal-haired woman frowning at the room.

A blue-haired man standing unnaturally to the side.

And a blonde girl, with short hair and blue eyes that frighteningly reminded him of himself.

The brunette spoke up: "So this is Ten? Looks like him and Nine could be sisters."

Len bit back a harsh reply. He had no idea what was going on and the woman was a stranger to him. Surely she was just as confused as he was at the moment.

The blonde that looked like Len gave him an apologetic glance. Then, the tealette spoke.

I guess we'll do the run-down again for this one," she said, although Len had no clue as to what she was referring to. "My name is Eight. One is the one that just insulted you, and Seven found you in your room."

"Why is everyone named after num—?" Len started to ask his question, but the woman stopped him.

"Let me finish," she said sternly. "The boy with the green hair is called Five and his sister there is Six. Then, the man with the pink hair is Four, the man with the blue hair is Two, and the pink-haired girl is Three. And Nine is the other blonde girl. Which makes you Ten."

Len took a moment to go over what the tealette, Eight, had just said. Len was number Ten. Nine was the girl that looked like Len. Eight was teal. Seven was the long-haired blonde. Six was the green girl and her brother was Five, the green boy. Four was the salmon-haired man. Three was the pink-haired girl. Two was the blue-haired man. And One was the brunette.

"What's going on here?" Len said. "Where in the world are we? And why are we here?"

Seven was the one that responded. "Nobody knows," she said. "We all woke up here with no memory of what happened beforehand. We've already looked around. All of the doors are locked and neither of the elevators works."

Len scratched his head and looked around. There were two, apparently dysfunctional, elevators to his left and a few uncomfortable looking benches to his right. Lights above him flickered with faulty wiring. The paper on the walls was half torn-off, and the carpet was dingy and worn through in some places. Down the hallway were two more branches, probably leading to hotel rooms. Nothing really seemed to catch Len's eye, until he noticed a speaker, bolted messily onto the ceiling in the far corner.

"What is that?" he said, pointing at it. The others followed his finger and, noticing the speaker, moved closer to get a better look.

The blue-haired man, Two, was the first to comment. "It looks like this was put here recently. It's much newer than everything else in here. The bolts are still shiny, even."

Before anyone else could say anything, the speaker crackled to life.

Hello, and welcome to all," it buzzed. Uncomfortable silence fell across the room. "And congratulations to the ten luckiest people in the world." The voice sounded raspy and irregular, as if it were going through a voice changer. "The ten of you have been specially selected for a psychological test pushing human capability to its very limits. The test will be conducted in the style of a game. The rules are quite simple. Players will have twenty hours to escape from the hotel. Failure to do so will result in the building's detonation at the twentieth hour. Unauthorized exit of the building will result in immediate elimination from the game. Unauthorized returning to floors previously visited will also result in elimination. Players will have twenty seconds to return to their designated floor before elimination. All players must stay together on one floor. If a player moves ahead of the group they will have twenty seconds to return before elimination. If multiple members move ahead, the group with the least number of members will have twenty seconds to join the larger group before elimination. If both groups are of equal size, all members will be eliminated.

"Following the first ten hours, players will begin a game of 'tag'. Each hour, a player will be selected at random as 'it'. That player must then complete a specified task, not to be disclosed to any other players. If an 'it' player admits to another player their specified task _or_ their 'it' status, both players will face immediate elimination. Any player who does not complete their specified task within the hour given will be eliminated.

"This experiment is not to be taken lightly. To ensure that all players follow the rules set before them, bombs have been planted somewhere within each player's body. Any attempted removal of the bombs with cause immediate _elimination._ The bombs will only deactivate after successfully escaping the building.

"The doors within the penthouse have now been unlocked. We advise that you begin your escape as soon as possible and, of course, we wish you good luck."

The speaker crackled and fell quiet. The silence and stillness in the room was impenetrable. Eliminated…

_Eliminated_.

Finally, someone spoke up. "I guess… we should start searching the floor again." It was Two.

"Hold on! Don't we need to think of some sort of plan first?" Seven said. "We only have twenty hours to get out of here. We need to think about this or something!"

"Oh, lay off," the green boy, Five, said. "That's a long time. All we have to do is take some stairs down to the first floor. It shouldn't take ten minutes. This is a joke."

Everyone began talking at once. Seven and Five were shouting at each other as Eight tried to quiet them down. One and Two had a conversation off to the side. Three was keeping to herself, away from the group. Maybe a minute passed before Len couldn't take any more.

"Shut _up_!" he shouted. The other nine turned to look at him. "I agree with Seven. We have to figure out what the _hell_ we need to be doing right now." He paused to make sure everyone was listening. "Now I don't have a clue who any of you are and I don't know why any of us are here, but what I do know is that we have a twenty hour time limit to get out of here. I have no idea who the _insane_ person behind all of this is, but I don't think they would give us twenty hours to sit around and piss ourselves is we could just walk out of here." Len saw Five glance away. "Now I think the first thing we need to do is learn some things about each other." Before One could object, Len went on. "I get why One wanted to go by these fake names and all, but there has got to be something linking us together that brought us here."

"Wait," Three said. It was the first time any of them had heard her speak. "What if these people are listening to us?"

"What are they gonna do," Len said, "'eliminate' us for going to high school in New York?" He ripped the front of his shirt open, exposing the bruised lump on his chest. "Someone has just sewn a _bomb_ under my skin and I am _not_ having it go off because some of us aren't serious enough about this 'game'." The nine others all touched a different spot on their person. Len let the silence hang as he buttoned his shirt back up.

"I agree," Two said, after a while. "We have no idea what we've gotten ourselves into. The least we can do is get to know ourselves a little bit. I'll start: I am Two, I'm in my twenties, and I have congenital analgesia. I can't feel pain."

Congenital analgesia. It explained why he stood so unnaturally, and when Len looked closely, he could see scars muddling Two's features. He tried not to stare.

"I'll go next," One said. "I am One, I'm in my late twenties, and I work in a motorcycle bar, hence my read leather." And bitchy personality

"I-I'll go," Three stuttered after that. "I'm Three and I'm a high school student in Detroit."

Soon, everyone had said something about themselves. Four was a psychologist, Five and Six were siblings born about six years apart, Seven had just graduated college with a degree in robotics and a minor in music, Eight was a waitress with two young children at home, and Nine was studying abroad in the United States.

"Okay, we've all introduced ourselves," Seven said. "Now it's your turn."

Len appeared startled for a moment, but he shook it off. "Oh, right. So I'm Ten and I…" He stopped. "I…"

"You _what_?" Seven asked impatiently.

"I'm… A college student."

"A college student? That's it?" she hissed.

"I…" Len couldn't say any more. He couldn't remember anything else.

One scoffed. "I can't believe this. Was that your plan all along? Get everyone to tell you about themselves then fake amnesia? Unbelievable."

"No, I swear that's not it! I…" Len wracked his brain, looking desperately for something to say. "I don't know! I can't remember anything; I don't know!"

One scoffed again, but Two defended him. "I think Ten's telling the truth, guys. This kind of thing happens all the time when people are under stress. Give him a break. I'm sure he'll tell us what he knows as soon as he remembers something." Len looked at Two thankfully.

A bell toll range once throughout the hotel; everyone stopped. The ten players exchanged a glance.

"What… was that?" Nine said.

"I think that was our first hour," said Two.

Silence sobered the group, and then, out of nowhere, Five turned tail and started running. Six and Three followed without thought. Len had no clue what was going on, but he joined in, to.

The players came to a door with a faded "EXIT" sign posted over it. Five tried the handle, and it was unlocked.

Confusion rippled through the other nine.

"How is it open…?" One mumbled. "We tried that door ten times before…"

"Does it matter now?" Five said. "It's open. We only have nineteen hours left, right? We'd better get going while we still can."

**Did you know which characters were which? I know most of them were probably easy, though Four Five and Six may have been a smidge tougher. Maybe Seven, probably not. I like the whole prospect of keeping everyone ambiguous, though. I'm trying to make it so that my main character doesn't know any more than the reader does, so that I'll force myself to communicate everything clearly.**

**For this story, I am going to have to think up NINETEEN different puzzles for these characters to figure out, and they'll have to translate into "novel language". I have three planned out, but, as for the rest, I am open to any suggestions that may inspire me.**

**If anyone is confused about anything, please feel free to let me know, and I can clear things up in chapters to come. This is my first time writing a puzzle/suspense novel, so any suggestions that could help me improve are **_**totally**_** welcome.**

**Please note that the chapters to come (probably starting with the 4****th**** chapter) will become increasingly violent, and the rating is likely to change from T to M.**

**Thanks so much for reading, and please review!**


	2. Fourteen

**One: brunette woman that works at a bar  
Two: ****blue-haired man with congenital analgesia**  
Three: timid, pink-haired high school girl from Detroit  
Four: salmon-haired man that works in psychology  
Five: green-haired boy in college, Six's brother  
Six: green-haired girl in high school, Five's sister  
Seven: tall, blonde college graduate  
Eight: teal-haired waitress with two children  
Nine: female exchange student with short blonde hair

**Anonymous reviewers:**

**red eagle: Why, yes I have played 999. How could you tell? XDD Yes, I drew a great deal of inspiration from that game, as well as the book **_**Devil in the White City **_**(but really, I swear the hotel is a coincidence) and a bit from the game Eternal Darkness: Sanity's Requiem (though I haven't actually played it yet. Lol)**

**So, aside from all of my obscure references, thanks much for the review!**

**Guest: O look! An update! Just for you!**

ʘΔAII _Fourteen_ ʘΔAII

The staircase went down farther than one floor. Len counted six flights of stairs before the group made it to an exit. There were no more stairs going down after it. There was a small 14 stenciled over the door, so it was safe to assume that the floor they would soon enter was the 14th and that they had probably come from the 20th.

Two was the first to enter. The door was unlocked, and he opened it slowly. As each player entered a beep was heard coming from their person. It was very dark on the 14th floor, which made it all the easier to see the glowing light coming off of Len's chest.

Len found the others staring at it with him. He unbuttoned his shirt to see the number 14 shining through his skin. Four appeared to have the same number showing through his bicep, and Six through the back of her arm.

"So I guess this is floor 14," someone said. It sounded like Eight, but Len couldn't see to know for sure.

"That would seem to be the case," Two's voice agreed.

"I guess we'd better start looking around, then," Len said, stepping forward through the group. "There's got to be another exit somewhere around here." Len began feeling against the walls, walking down the black hallway. Paint chipped off beneath his fingers, tinkling off of the wall onto the floor. He turned the corner to his right and, seeing something near the end of the hallway, hastened his pace. He heard some tentative footsteps behind him, mixed with heavier, more confident feet. Finally, he stood before the sign he had seen from the other end of the hall. It was an old, simple neon sign spelling out the words "LIGHT IT UP".

"Light it up?" Nine asked from behind Len, making him jump.

"What do you suppose it means?" One asked, farther back.

"Maybe we're supposed to turn on the light switch," Two suggested. It sounded plausible enough, and so Len and the other began feeling the wall up for a switch.

Five yelled from a few feet away. "Found it!" he exclaimed, flipping the switch and letting the lights flicker to life. Len blinked rapidly, re-adjusting to the prospect of sight. The switch, though very helpful, of course, had only activated one light. However, that light exposed a series of switches in a line down the hallway. They were numbered 1 through 20. Five had activated 20's switch.

"Okay, so what do we do with this?" said Eight. "We have a tiny bit of light and a whole bunch of switches. What, do we just turn them all on and see what happens?"

Len made his way to switch 19. He flicked it up, and the light activated by switch 20 went off. He switched it off and the light came back on again. "Huh. I guess that's not how it works, then," he noted.

"Hey, guys, check this out. Some other lights turned on with switch 20," Seven said. Len turned around and saw that she was right. Underneath the doors of five different rooms, a small bar of light had appeared, escaping from the inside.

"Five rooms lit up," One observed. "I say we split up into groups of two and search each room. I'll go with Two. Three and Four can go together, Five with Six, and so on. Any objections?" Nobody said anything, so she went on. "Okay, I guess we'll take the first door, then." One and Two went to the closest door and turned the handle. Unlocked. They went inside and the door closed behind them.

Nine tapped Len on the shoulder. "Come on, let's go," she said, gesturing to the next lit door. Len nodded and followed her inside.

The room was notably smaller than the one he'd previously woken up in, though the furniture was mostly the same. The windows were boarded and bolted over so that no light came in from the outside. Peeling paint hung from the ceiling, stretching toward the floor like teeth. The room was filled with clutter, as if it were left in a hurry and never touched afterward. The corners of the carpet were blackened, as though scorched with fire. It smelled like dust and old cigarettes. Len wrinkled his nose and rubbed water from his eyes.

"Let's get this over with," he grumbled, starting toward the first pile of rubbish. Neither individual found anything of use for the first ten minutes. There was dirt and fallen paint and broken furniture and glass, but that seemed to be it.

Another minute passed, and Nine made a noise of excitement.

"Ten! Look!" She popped up from the far right corner of the room, holding a wooden box.

Len stood and met her in the middle of the room. Nine opened the box and set it on the broken mattress. It was a box of letters. Nine stared at them in awe, picking one up and examining it closely.

Len grabbed another one that appeared something more than just paper inside.

"Do you think we should open them?" Nine said.

"Of course we should," Len answered. "They were put here for a reason." He carefully opened the envelope in his hands and took out a letter. He quickly found that he would not be able to read it, though. Most of the letter was smudged out, and the parts that weren't smudged were written in Latin. However, at the bottom of the letter, a coin with a number 4 indented into it was pasted. Len peeled the coin off of the letter and turned it over in his hands. On the back was a symbol, a circle with a dot in the middle.

ʘ

Nine noticed what Len was looking at and gestured for him to share.

"Sol," she said. Len looked at her with confusion. "This symbol on the coin. It's the symbol for Sol. The sun."

"The sun…" Len mumbled. He would keep that in mind for later. "Did you find anything in the letters?" he moved on.

"Just this," Nine said, handing over more smudged papers.

"No good," Len said, folding the letters and tucking them into his back pocket. "Let's see if anyone else found anything."

Len and Nine carefully exited the room and found the other groups waiting for them outside. Len noticed One and Three comparing letters that appeared similar to the ones he and Nine had found.

"Hey, can I see those?" Len asked, holding his hand out to One and Three.

They willingly complied and Len examined the papers. When he looked closely, he noticed similarities in their formats. In fact, they almost appeared to be the same as the letters he and Nine found earlier. Len crouched down, taking out the letters from his pocket. The others, noticing what he was doing, handed him letters they had found in their own rooms.

On the floor, Len had fifteen letters, three from each group. Of the fifteen letters, Len noticed five different repeating formats. He also saw that each paper of the same format had smudging in different places. An idea struck him and he stacked the alike papers on top of one another then held them up to the light.

The words lined up perfectly, and together, he could see that not only were they words, but actually charts filled with symbols and definitions.

"Anyone here know Latin?" Len asked, looking back at the crowd around him. He saw Four look around sheepishly, then raise his hand slightly. Len handed Four the stack of papers he was holding.

Four squinted as he studied them. "I can read it," he said, "but I'm not sure what…" He trailed off and furrowed his brow, alternating stacks of paper and examining them.

Then, a realization hit him, square in the face.

"They're alchemic symbols," Four said. A ripple of confusion vibrated through the other nine. Four pulled out a coin from his jacket. On the front was a Three, and on the back was a triangle with a line through the top.

A

"See this?" he said. "In alchemy, this is the symbol for vital air. Did anyone else find coins like this?"

Members from all other groups nodded, including Len. Nine, Seven, Six, and One all pulled out their respective coins, handing them to Four.

See, here with One's coin; on the back is a triangle, the symbol for fire," Four explained.

Δ

"Then on Nine's coin is the symbol for the sun, which is also the symbol for gold in alchemy. And six's coin…" Four stopped to take a closer look. "It looks like the astronomical symbol for Gemini, but I don't know what that corresponds with."

As Four held up the papers to decipher the meaning of the symbol, Len stared at the symbol on the coin. It looked like a curved Roman numeral 2.

_II_

"Fixation!" Four exclaimed, clenching his fist.

"Fixation?" Seven asked. "What is fixation?"

"According to this sheet, it's a process where a compound becomes unable to burn, and usually marks the end of an alchemic process," Four explained.

"And what does that have to do with anything?" Seven said, reflecting everyone's thoughts.

"I don't know," Four admitted. "But I bet these coins and symbols have something to do with the light switches."

"Then why don't we test them?" asked Five. "We'll turn on the lights that go with whatever symbol and see what happens."

"_Oh, _no," Seven interjected. "Didn't you hear him say that one of those symbols was for _fire_? Are you _insane?_"

"What if all this stuff is just bogus?" Five retorted. "We've gotta figure it out somehow. God, chill out, lady."

"What did you just say to me? Rude little assh—" Eight yanked on Seven's arm and shut her up.

"Shut up, guys!" Len hissed. "We can't just start fighting over every little thing. We have to work together if we all want to get out intact. That's how the game was designed. So don't just start _biting heads off_ an hour in!" Len huffed and ruffled his hair. "So let's just test all the other symbols and see what they do so we can get out of here. Is that okay with everyone?" There was a grumble of agreement from Five and Seven and the rest of the room nodded. Four began arranging the coins based on their symbols. ʘ Sol, Δ Fire, _II_ Gemini, A Air.

"I think we should maybe try the 4 coin first," Nine chimed from the back of the cluster, "since it has the symbol of the sun on it, and that means light. And weren't alchemists all trying to make gold out of stone? So that means that it should probably turn the lights on, since that's what our goal is right now, right?"

Four nodded. "I think that's a good bet," he said. "Let's try it."

Len took the liberty of locating switch 4 and flipping it up. Surely enough, another light came on with it.

"Look!" Three said, pointing down the hallway toward the entrance door. "More rooms lit up!"

"So Nine was right," Five noted.

"What do the other switches do, then?" Seven asked.

"Do we even need to test them?" Eight said. "I mean, we have what we need to know. It's not like any of the other switches will do us any good. All we have left are air and 'fixation,' whatever that is. Neither of those things sounds like light to me."

"I think we should check, just to be sure," Two said. "They may not have anything to do with the symbols. We can't be sure."

"All right, fine," Eight griped. "Ten, flip switch 3."

Len did as he was told, flipping the switch. The lights flicked off. When he turned the switch back, the lights came on.

"See? Nothing," Eight snapped.

"Did anyone else hear that?" Three said, a slight quiver in her voice. She looked over her shoulder then back to the other nine. "It sounded like… air blowing or something."

"I didn't hear anything," Seven said.

"Me either," added Eight.

"Maybe it was just my imagination…" Three trailed off.

"Should I try the next switch?" Len asked, still by switches 3 and 4.

"Ah, yes," Four said. "I believe the Gemini symbols could be seen on the coins for 14 and 15. Try one of those."

Len flipped switch 14, and, as was expected by him at that point, the lights turned off. However, when he flipped the switch back down, the lights didn't return. He flipped the switch back and forth, and still nothing happened.

"What did you do!?" Seven snapped at him. Len didn't reply, just tried the switch again.

About five minutes of disorder passed before light 20 came back on. Switch 4 also appeared to be in an off position again, so Len took the liberty of turning it back on before joining in the conversation adjacent.

"Okay, so we need to remember _not_ to flip the Gemini switches," Seven noted.

"What about the other symbol?" Five said. "The fire one; shouldn't we try it out, just to see what happens?"

Seven and Eight exchanged a glance. "I guess," Seven mumbled, "we can give it a try. Just to make sure." She grabbed her elbow self-consciously.

"Ten, try switch 8," Four directed.

Len approached the switch hesitantly. He flipped it up and waited. Nothing appeared to happen. He turned it back off.

"See? What did I tell you? There was nothing to be afraid of," Five gloated.

Seven scoffed and turned away.

The next twenty-five minutes were spent searching the rooms for the symbol of Sol. They came up with the following: A Air 3, 7, 11, 13, 17, 19; _II_ Gemini 9, 14, 15, 18; Δ Fire 6, 8, 12, 16; ʘ Sol 1, 2, 4, 5, 10.

Len turned on the switches for each Sol symbol as they appeared. The last one he had was 10, however he accidentally reached for switch 11, causing a blackout for a moment.

"Sorry," Len apologized. "My hand slipped."

He turned on switch 10. All of the floor became filled with light, and the click of a door unlocking could be heard.

"All right!" Five celebrated.

A bell tolled. 1… 2 times.

"And just in time," Two added grimly.

"Come on, let's get out of here," Len said, heading for the exit. He turned the handle. Open.

Two seconds didn't pass before he heard a scream.

"_Fiiire!_"

It was Six.

Out of nowhere, a fire had begun spewing from a light. It looked like its wiring had caused an electrical fire. Six was the only one trapped behind the fire, and it was spreading quickly. Everyone else had already passed through the door. Len looked back at Six through the doorway, horrified.

"Ten! What are you doing!?" Seven shouted. Len looked at her, frozen in place. "You'll set the whole stairwell on fire! You've got to close the door!"

Len looked down. She was right. The whole stairwell was made out of wood. It was as if it were planned. The metal door with its thick paned, wire-gridded window was totally fireproof, along with the outer wall. The fire would travel all the way down unless that door was closed.

Without thinking, Len shut the door.

Six jumped. A look of terror, pure terror, even greater than the fear that had marked her before, fell upon Six's face. Slowly, Six lifted up her left arm. There, ticking down heartlessly, numbers glowed through the bruised skin above her triceps.

"_Gumi!_" Five yelled from behind, pushing everyone out of his way. He gave Len the most menacing glare anyone'd ever seen. "You _monster_. HOW COULD YOU DO THIS TO MY _SISTER_!?" Five started banging on the door, calling out that name over and over.

17.

"Move out of the way!" Four yelled, moving both Five and Len aside. Five continued to beat on the wall. "Six, can you hear me?" She nodded slowly, tears flowing from her left eye. "Turn on switch 14! Quickly! Go!"

13.

Six shook her head. The fire had covered most of the wall. She couldn't get to it without burning herself. She let out a weak cough and her shoulders began to shake.

10.

"Just do it, Six! You have to! You'll burn!" Four screamed.

Her shoulders shook again, and she forced herself to the wall. Her scream could be heard from outside when she reached for the switch through the fire.

7.

The lights went out and the fire began to diminish. Six ran back to the door and shook the handle. It was locked.

5.

She ran back. Len could hardly see what she was doing in the dark room, except for the numbers glowing through her arm.

4.

She ran back and forth aimlessly, flipping switches seemingly at random in a final act of desperation. She ran back to the window.

3.

Tears were streaming down her face as she yelled the name of her brother. Five and Six looked at each other hopelessly, sobs shaking their foundations and structures caving in.

2.

"_Get out of there!_" Seven screamed at Five, yanking him away from the door. She dragged him as far away as she could, ripping the siblings apart before their final second together could be shared.

1.

ʘΔAII

**Dang. Reading that just always gets my adrenaline pumping. **

**Should I start having a reference at the top of the page for which character is which for these first couple chapters? I know it probably gets a bit confusing for you guys, and you have to work your brains really hard just to read it. (Believe me, writing it is freaking hell on wheels. My brain is fried.) **

**Any suggestions anyone has for me to keep things clear are TOTALLY welcome! My goal is to convey my vision to you readers!**

**Thanks everyone for reading, and a thank you to my anonymous reviewers, too! Since I don't get to thank you privately. **

**Please review! Tell me how I'm doing!**


	3. Four

**One: brunette woman that works at a bar  
Two: blue-haired man with congenital analgesia  
Three: timid, pink-haired high school girl from Detroit  
Four: salmon-haired man that works in psychology  
Five: green-haired boy in college, Six's brother  
****Six: green-haired girl in high school, Five's sister**** First casualty: fire room: ****_accident_****  
Seven: tall, blonde college graduate  
Eight: teal-haired waitress with two children  
Nine: female exchange student with short blonde hair**

**Anonymous Reviewers:**

**red eagle: It's all good. ^^; I just put the reference up at, like, 5 o'clock on the day you reviewed. And then totally forgot to delete that part in the author's note. Oops…**

**Anyway, I see no problem in imagining this as a visual novel. Lol. I mean, I still have trouble remembering Seven is a girl because Seven was a large tan man in 999. XDD And this is, ya know, ****_my_**** story. So that's a little bit disappointing.**

**Guest: I'm so glad to hear that you like it, and thanks for the review! I'll try to keep each chapter as exciting as the last. ;DD**

XeOClNʘ

_Four_

XeOClNʘ

Only seconds had passed, but Five looked years older.

_You monster! HOW COULD YOU DO THAT TO MY SISTER!?_

Len couldn't look at anyone. He was a murderer. He killed Six. He'd done it, and without even thinking. Five would never forgive him. He would never forgive himself. It was all his fault.

Len didn't count the flights of stairs during his descent. No one spoke, but they moved swiftly. Seven wouldn't make eye contact with anyone. Four kept his gaze downward. Two seemed to be the only one capable of holding his head up.

Nine, noticing Len's discomfort, tried to cheer him up, putting her hand on his shoulder in a friendly gesture. Len shook her off. Nine frowned but still stayed near.

Before they knew it, the nine players found themselves standing in front of an exit with a number 4 above the door. It was safe to assume that the group had descended ten flights of stairs, and that 4 was the floor number. Two looked back at the others before pushing the door open. He stepped inside. A 4 glowed on the lump at the back of Two's neck; the others followed. The last one to enter was Five, who stood outside, pondering for a moment, then finally followed suit. Len wondered what was going through Five's head, why he stopped. It hit him like a punch in his chest, that perhaps Five was thinking of staying behind and joining his sister. Len shook his head, shivering.

"Something's not right," Four said quietly, his head down. His lips made a hard line, and he grabbed the back of his neck in frustration. "Something's just not right," he repeated.

It appeared that only Len had heard him. The others seemed preoccupied by the room they'd entered, and when Len finally lifted his head, he understood why.

They were in an infirmary.

"Why in god's name would there be a hospital inside a hotel…?" Len noticed Seven mumble to herself. He was wondering the same thing.

Twenty. Len counted twenty metal cots lined neatly in rows across the room. Each cot was bare; one or two boasted paper-thin blankets over their steel frames. A long, flat, metal table went down the middle of the room, a curtain drawn across one of its sides. On the left and right sides of the room were large, dark cabinets of medicines and supplies.

And there was one other aspect of the room that he couldn't manage to ignore.

Ticking.

Soft, low, unsynchronized ticking.

It was so soft that Len wasn't sure if it was even real, until, upon further investigation, he found medium-sized clocks set on the counters at the room's wings. Twenty of them. _It's only appropriate_, Len thought grimly, _that the number of clocks here reflects how long we have left to live._

"We should start searching the room," Two said. "We have 18 hours left. Let's get ahead of the time while we can."

"But we're already on floor four," Seven argued. "At this rate, we're sure to beat the time."

"Two's right," Len spoke up, averting everyone's gaze. "We still don't know what's on the floors to come. Let's keep the pace up if we can. I'll start looking through the cabinets on the left. Four and Three, you can come and help me. One, Two, and Nine can search the right side of the room, and everyone else can check the middle." Seven cast an uneasy glance toward Len, but went to search anyway.

Len made his way past the cots to the cabinets. He noticed a clock with the time 9:00 a.m. stuck on the face. It didn't sound like it was ticking anymore, and there was some sort of empty vial atop it. Len shuddered, not wanting to think about what might have been inside it. He started searching through the cabinets' contents. There were bottles full of pills and liquids with names he couldn't pronounce, but little that appeared out of the ordinary for an infirmary, aside from a specimen jar containing a two-headed snake. Len shivered, before noticing something behind the jar. He moved it aside, the liquid sloshing against its lid. There was a flashlight standing against the back of the cabinet. Len took it and turned it on. A bluish light was cast on the floor. So it was a blacklight. Len held on to it, thinking he could find a good use for it later.

"The middle group has finished!" Seven called. "If everyone else is done, come to the middle table and we'll discuss what we found."

"Len joined the others and set down his flashlight on the table. Four stood tensely next to him.

"Did you notice it?" Four whispered.

"Notice what?" Len said.

"The ticking."

"What about it?"

_Tick_.

Four was about to answer when Eight interrupted. "If you two are finished gossiping I'd like to start." She paused a moment then continued. "So the only thing we found is that the table here isn't just a table. There's a number lock on the other side. We think it's a giant safe. There's nothing on any of the cots, and the floor is spotless. What about your guys, Ten?"

Len looked over at Three and Four. They both shook their heads. "Other than a lot of medicine, I found this flashlight," he said, finally. "I think it's a blacklight, like the kind they use at crime scenes, to find bloodstains. That's about it. That and the clocks. Ten of them, all with some sort of vials on top."

Eight nodded and looked over to One, Two, and Nine. Two pulled a piece of paper from his pocket and flattened it out on the table. It was a diagram of the room from the looks of it. Ten rectangles stood on each side of a long rectangle in the middle. There were four rectangles that were colored red, blue, green, and yellow. That was all.

"So that's some sort of map of the room?" Seven said. "What do we do with it?"

"Well, Ten said that he found that flashlight. Why not try turning off the lights and checking the room again?" Two suggested.

The others nodded and Two turned off the lights.

Len turned on the flashlight and shined it around the room. He held his mouth with his hands; the flashlight dropped to the ground. Glowing smears covered the walls. Spatters dotted the spaces in between. There wasn't a spot on the floor that hadn't once been covered in blood.

The lights flickered back on and Len felt arms under him, lifting him off of the floor. He hadn't even realized he'd fallen.

_Tock. _

It was Four who'd lifted him up. Len shook his head and tried to regain his composure. "Sorry," he said. "It was just a shock is all. Sorry," he said again. "You can turn the lights out again." Seven and Eight exchanged a glance.

"Are you sure?" asked Seven. "We can take a break if you need it."

"No, turn them off. I'm fine."

"Seven looked back at Eight again before nodding to Two. The lights went out.

Len wasn't exactly sure why he'd collapsed. He shouldn't have been surprised at all. The room had been too clean, and at the discovery of the blacklight, it should have been obvious that the room contained more secrets than it seemed.

But that very sight, knowing that the blood on the walls had once been real, stirred something within Len. He tried to tell himself that it was just a part of this cruel game, that these gamemakers were just trying to rattle him. Surely the stains on the wall had just been painted on, perhaps with pig's blood or something of the like.

_Tick._

But he couldn't shake it. Something in his gut told him that something horrible had taken place in that room, and no matter how hard he tried to push away his paranoia, it kept crawling back to the front of his mind.

"Maybe you should let me take that," Nine offered, referring to the light quivering in Len's hands. "If you're not feeling up to it, you can just let us look around." Len could hardly see Nine's face in the dark, but her voice was laced with concern.

Len nodded, handing her the light and stepping back. He leaned against the wall for a moment before realized that it had probably been covered in blood, too, and settled with crouching on the floor. He was beginning to feel numb, and his ears were ringing.

_Tock._

Len's eyes snapped open. Watery voices floated in his ears and pale faced crowded around him. His appendages felt tingly, and it felt as though someone were fanning his face. It took a moment for him to realize that he'd passed out.

"The color in his face is coming back," Seven said behind him, though he barely understood the words.

"Is he okay?" "What happened?" "Does he feel warm? Did he bruise himself?" The voices were coming in and out so fast Len couldn't distinguish them.

"H-how long was I out?" Len mumbled. His head was beginning to clear, though he didn't feel up to sitting up just yet.

"We found you collapsed after we turned the lights back on," Two explained. "It was only for a couple of minutes—"

"Are you okay, Ten?" Nine cut in. "Did you fall? Are you hurt?" She tried to lift Len's torso a bit. "I'm sorry. I didn't think you looked so good before. I should have known you may faint."

Len's mind was still bleary, especially after sitting up. He blinked slowly in reply.

_Tick._

"But we finished searching the room, now," Seven said. "It was mostly just a lot… just nothing useful, but we did find some weird letters on some of the beds."

Len sat himself up the rest of the way. Two, Four, Seven, and Nine sat in a semicircle around him while One, Three, Five, and Eight stood behind him, shuffling uncomfortably. On the floor in front of him sat the map from earlier, now with sloppy scribbles over the four colored cots. Red-Xe, Blue-O, Green-Cl, Yellow-N.

"Do you have any idea what it means?" Seven asked.

_Tock._

"Periodic table," Len blurted out.

"What?"

"They're elements. From the periodic table."

"Elements?"

"Yeah. Xenon, oxygen, chlorine, and nitrogen."

"Well what good is a bunch of elements going to do us in here?"

"I know!" Eight said suddenly. Everyone looked back at her. "Remember the lock on the table in the middle of the room? I remember it being color-coded."

"Okay, so why don't we try entering the atomic numbers for each element onto the lock," Len said. "You said it was a number lock, right?"

_Tick._

Seven nodded. "That's right. We'll try it out." She paused then added, "You can just stay here for a while, if you're still not feeling well."

Len nodded. "Thanks."

She paused again. "Hey, um, who knows the atomic numbers for all of the elements?"

Len almost spoke, but Two interrupted him. "I know them. Here, I'll enter the numbers."

The other eight moved to the side of the room with the lock, except for Nine.

_Tock_.

"…Are you sure you're okay?" she asked.

"Yeah," Len said. "I just got a little dizzy is all."

"Scared of blood?"

Len averted her gaze. "Just… Just dizzy," he insisted.

Nine frowned.

_Tick_.

"It's open!" Seven exclaimed. "But the opening is really small." She turned toward Len and Nine. "Nine, you're the smallest one here. Mind giving us a hand?"

She glance back at Len before standing and joining Seven and the others.

_Tock_.

"There're a bunch of weird numbers in here. I can't really figure it out," Nine called from under the table. Her voice was clearer when she spoke again. "Someone else is going to have to look at it."

Len started to stand, steadying himself against the wall. "Let me look," he said. "I'm sure you just need a fresh pair of eyes."

_Tick_.

Len squeezed himself into the space, blacklight in hand. Inside the small space, numbers were written along the walls, ten on each side. 9, 11, 13, 15, 17, 19, 21, 23, 1, 3; 8, 10, 12, 14, 16, 18, 20, 22, 0, 4. Beneath each number was a color, that appeared to be daubed on with paint that reacted under the flashlight.

_Tock_.

Blue, yellow, blue, yellow, blue, yellow, blue, yellow, blue, yellow; red, green, red, green, red, green, red, green, red, green. Each underneath the numbers respectively.

"How are you doing under there?" Four called.

_Tick_.

On the floor was a strange picture of what appeared to be a block with a squiggly line inside and a ʘ in the middle. The symbol for Sol.

_Tock_.

"Hold on, I think I'm starting to figure it out," Len said.

Colors, numbers, symbols.

_Tick_.

Colors corresponded to the elements. Red was xenon, blue was oxygen, green was chlorine, yellow was nitrogen.

_Tock_.

The numbers were the clocks on the tables that ticked constantly, but never moved.

_Tick_.

The box and the squiggle. That had to mean something.

_Tock_.

Sol was the symbol for gold, and their goal. They needed a key. ʘ was a key.

_Tick_.

The box and squiggle… of course! It was a picture of the two-headed snake!

_Tock_.

But the colors. What else could they mean?

_Tick_.

Each color was next to a clock.

_Tock_.

Each clock held a vial on its top.

_Tick_.

The vial for 9:00 had been empty.

_Tock_.

9:00 was oxygen.

_Tick_.

8:00 was xenon, the noble gas.

_Tock_.

10:00 was chlorine.

_TICK._

The clock that had _tock_ stopped was 9:00 _tick_ which meant that 9:00 _tock_ had already happened _tick_ and its vial had _tock_ already released.

_Tick._

Both oxygen and _tock_ xenon were generally_ tick_ harmless to humans _tock_ however chlorine _tick_ had poison_tock_ous effects_ tick_ when _tock_ in_tick_haled_tock_.

_Tick._

That meant that—_tock._

_"We have to get out of here!_" Len shouted. He shot out from under the table and ran to the left-side cabinets.

"What? What is it?" Seven asked, reaching out to grab for Len's shoulders, before thinking better of it.

"How long have we been in here?" Len hissed.

"A-almost an hour, I'd guess," she said.

"No!" Len yelled, slamming his hands against the table. He suddenly allowed himself to calm, relaxing his shoulder and arms. "Chlorine," he said. "Chlorine gas." He stood up straight and directed his gaze to the opposite wall. "At 10 o'clock, the vial on top of that clock will be released. That vial contains a concentrated form of chlorine gas. And, well…" He didn't finish.

"Then how do we get out of here!" Three said.

"There's got to be a key in here, somewhere. Look for a jar containing a two-headed snake," Len said, turning to search for the jar he'd found earlier. The others paused for a moment, then began searching as well.

"I found one!" Three exclaimed from the other side of the room.

"I found one as well," Four said.

Len located the jar he'd found earlier, then returned to the middle table. The others collected there as well. There were ten jars total. It occurred to Len that the number of jars was supposed to match the number of players. His chest tightened.

"So now what do we do?" Five said, the first time he'd spoken in the past hour.

"T-there's gotta be a key in one of these," he said, shaking his head a little and straightening up. Thinking about the time, he was filled with a renewed sense of urgency. He grabbed one of the jars and struggled to open it. "Damn, it's not budging," he hissed.

"Same over here," Four grunted.

"Goddammit, just give me that!" Seven hissed, snatching Len's jar away. She threw it on the ground and the glass shattered on the floor; the two-headed creature landed stiffly on the floor.

"Where's the key?" Three said. "There has to be a key in there."

"Maybe it's inside the snake," Two said. "Come on, we're in an infirmary. There must be something we can use to cut these things open."

"Seven, Eight, Nine, start smashing jars," Len said. "Everyone else, look for scissors, scalpels, anything. Hurry!" Len ran to the cabinets and started a frantic search.

And suddenly, the noise stopped.

No one spoke, nothing moved, the clocks stopped ticking. The only sound was the chime of a clock. One… Two… Three.

Three's eyes were wide. "We're too late," she whispered.

"No, we're not!" Len hissed. Across the room, sickly whitish gas seeped out of a vial. Len drew in a huge breath. He left the cabinets and grabbed for a shard of glass on the floor. He pulled his sleeve down to protect his hand and clawed at the skin of the rubbery snake. _Dammit, there's nothing here!_ Len thought desperately. He grabbed for another jar and smashed it against the ground. The evaporated preservation fluid burned in his nose, though he had not breathed. The air was getting hazy with chlorine gas. _I can't last much longer_, he thought, eyes watering at the air.

When someone screamed.

"_It bit me_!"

It was Three. Len looked and saw her bracing herself against the table, panting shallowly a snake's head buried in her hand. Len stood up with a start, barely managing to slow her fall as she fainted. Len clawed the head from Three's hand. He let out the breath he'd been holding, offering relief for barely a second. He frantically drove his glass into the snake's flesh. His hand caught on something, and he panicked for a moment before realizing that it was the key. Throwing the glass away, he dug his fingers in and pulled out a metal key.

Struggling to his feet, Three still in his arms, he hauled her toward the door. Two noticed his struggle and came to help. Len couldn't see his own hands at the door, but God must have been looking down on him because he found the keyhole almost immediately.

_No,_ Len mentally scoffed. _If God were looking down on me, I wouldn't be here._

He thrust the door open, collapsing onto the stairs and gasping. The others followed, not pausing to close the door behind them. Len fought to stay conscious. He looked to his right and saw Three lying next to him She wasn't moving. He scrambled over her and held his head against her chest. No breathing. No heartbeat.

"_Dammit_," he gasped, throwing his mouth against hers and starting CPR. 30 chest compressions and two breaths lather, she still wasn't moving. "Damn it, Three, wake up!" he hissed, trusting his hands against her heart again.

Suddenly she sputtered, taking in a huge breath and coughing. She blinked rapidly, glancing around with a wild look in her eyes. Len was so relieved he could have wept.

"Three! Are you okay?" Eight said.

"I'm fine," she coughed, "I'm just—ugh." Three cut herself off and clenched her forehead, using the hand that had been bitten. The skin around the bite was swelling and purple in the center. Len's stomach churned.

"Does it hurt? Do you need to rest?" Eight asked, feeling Three's forehead with the back of her hand. "You're warm."

"I'm fine. I'm sure I can make it," Three insisted. She struggled to sit somewhat upright, still clasping her forehead.

"Here, I'll carry you," Len offered.

"No, I can do i—" She broke off again as she collapsed. Len barely managed to catch one arm, while Four held the other.

"Here, we'll help you," Four said, standing with Len and Three.

Len looked ahead toward their next path. It was only then that he realized that the staircase went up.

* * *

**Hahaha. Haha. Ha. What the hell even.**

**Yeah, whatever, I know, I took forever to update, I'm a bad person, and all of those other offensive comments.  
I'll have you know that I was SWAMPED by homework at the end of the school year, and then there was, like, this solid month of finals and AP and other exams that just took up way too much time and energy and it was just awwffuulllllll. Then summer came, and I had two costumes to make for an anime convention (only one of which I finished.) And just two weeks later, Japan.**

Which is where I'm posting from now! 

**I'm staying here in Japan for a month, living in my sister's apartment. I love getting to stay with my sister and her roommate and her roommate's boyfriend and everyone. X33 I'm going to be here until the 15th of next month, and hopefully, whenever I have free time, I'll be able to write and post more updates. Hopefully. Maybe. ****Unlikely. **

**Iiiiiiii'm a bad person.**

**Anyway, I hope you liked the update, and puh-huh-leeeaaaasseeee give me your feedback and reviews and suggestions for future puzzles. I'm amazed at how much feedback I've gotten on this story, and just in two chapters. I could not tell you how thankful I am for you guys, and I only hope that you will continue to support me so vehemently.**

**Thanks so much for reading!**


	4. Seven

**One: brunette woman that works at a bar  
Two: blue-haired man with congenital analgesia  
Three: timid, pink-haired high school girl from Detroit  
Four: salmon-haired man that works in psychology  
Five: green-haired boy in college, Six's brother  
****Six: green-haired girl in high school, Five's sister****  
Seven: tall, blonde college graduate  
Eight: teal-haired waitress with two children  
Nine: female exchange student with short blonde hair**

**Anonymous Reviewers:**

**Catphones: Dude I like just found out two days ago that 999 had a sequel and I legitimately went straight out and bought it and it was a great idea. I'm sorry about the long update, though. Sooo much stuff got in the way that I will explain at the end of this chapter. ~ **

**Guest: coughi'msorrycough**

**Isabella314: I'm glad I got your pulse going. Heeheehee. Oh, and please, spoil away. It's my review section; I give you permission. I want to hear your theory on floor Four. **

**A slightly less intense chapter as a break for the fainter of heart.  
sorryifit'slikereallyreallyreallyrough**

_clutterclutterclutter_

**_Four_**

_clutterclutterclutter_

"It… It goes up," One said, almost to herself.

"I knew it was never going to be that easy," Four muttered.

Len wasn't surprised at all. In fact, he was numb. The girl leaning on his arm was as good as dead. Her breath came in short gasps, and her temperature was steadily rising. "Come on, let's move," Len said, nodding at Four as they worked together to help Three in their ascent.

Len counted three flights of stairs as they went up, and, surely enough, a number 7 hung limply over a set of double doors at the top of the staircase. The doors were the epitome of class, with intricate carvings and dark, fine wood. That is, that _would_ be the case if they weren't in such dismal condition. One door was missing a handle, and the other's hung by a single screw. Scratches marred the fine surface, and the left door, the one without a handle, boasted a hole in the upper corner next to what looked like inhuman scratch marks.

Len hesitated before pushing open the door on the right. He didn't know what to prepare himself for. It moved forward with a horrible creaking noise, and Len winced as Three stiffened against his arm.

The room on the other side was a total mess. The nine players stepped inside cautiously, taking in the would-have-been rather spacious room if not for all of the trash cluttering the floor and furniture in untidy piles. It looked as though it might have been a lounge area at one point. There were three faded couches around a table on the right side of the room, and two more chairs sat next to each other on the left in front of a sort of bar area. Much like other rooms in the hotel, the paint from the ceiling and walls was cracked and peeling, leaving a litter of cream and milky green dust on the areas of the floor not already coated in crumpled paper, discarded bottles, and used napkins.

Three began moaning and Four and Len quickly moved to clear off enough space on one of the couches for her to lie down. While there, Len noticed a book lying open on the coffee table between the couches. The table looked significantly newer than anything else they'd seen in the hotel thus far, and Len noticed how meticulously clean it seemed, polished and shiny against the crusty room. The book was placed in the center of the table and was opened to a torn-out page. The only words visible on the torn page were "complete me."

"Guys, I think I know what we have to do," Len said, casting his attention back toward the others, who were still awkwardly crowded around the entrance.

"We've barely walked in and you already know what to do?" One asked incredulously. "Tch."

"All right, I'll let you take a look around, and then you can tell me what _your_ plan of action is," Len replied in the same mocking tone.

One stared back at him, surprised, for a moment before shaking it off and starting her own survey of the room; the other five followed suit.

Len and Four crouched around Three, examining her. Her eyes were closed and wet and her breathing was becoming more labored as time passed.

As if she saw us observing her, she turned her head over slowly and forced her eyes open.

"I'm—" she breathed, but her energy was beginning to fail her. "I'm not going to make it. Am I." She said it more as a statement of fact than a question.

Four stroked her hair lightly. "Just rest," he said. "We'll be out of here before you know it."

Three closed he eyes again and tilted her head back up, gulping as a weak tear rolled off her cheek. "I… I can't even see your face," she choked out, almost smiling.

Len had to glance away. He stood up abruptly and turned, stalking toward the left side of the room.

"What have you found?" Len asked One and the others, a bit hotly.

"A whole lot of nothing," Seven retorted, kicking a glass bottle. "The doors are all locked—and only one of them even has a keyhole, I might add—absolutely none of this junk is useful, and, worst of all, there's no booze at the bar so we can't all drink our last hours into oblivion." Len almost smiled at her attempt at dark humor.

"Over on that table next to Three and Four is a book with a missing page that says 'complete me,'" Len explained, glancing around the room as he did so. "I think we have to find that missing page in this room somewhere."

"We have to search for some book page in _this_?" Eight exclaimed.

"That's the challenge aspect of the task, I suppose," Nine mumbled.

Two nodded toward Len. "I suppose we'd better start now," he said.

Len nodded back. Something in his gut forced him to walk back toward Three and Four before he began searching. Nine followed him over. Len and Four exchanged a solemn glance, which did not go unnoticed.

"You two start searching the back of the room," Nine said. "I can take care of her for now."

Four flashed Nine a thankful smile before turning toward a pile of rubbish under a boarded window behind the sitting area. Len joined him.

They were silent for the first few moments of digging, but Four eventually started to talk.

"My daughter had leukemia," he said. At first Len wasn't sure if he was talking to himself or not. Four looked up at Len expectantly, waiting for a response. Len didn't seem have one so he went on. "She said those exact words to me, the day before she died."

Another silence followed. "This world is a cruel one," Len said, working on organizing trash into neat stacks.

Four chuckled slightly. "I don't think so."

Len stopped his organizing, looking up. "How?"

"I'm not sure," Four said. Len waited for him to add on but he didn't.

A few minutes passed before anything else was said. The two men had moved on to their third pile of trash, digging and organizing, no longer caring about the dirt on their fingers, much less noticing it.

"You said something earlier, before we got to the infirmary," Len started this time. "You said, 'Something's just not right.'" And it wasn't. "And I wanted to know what you were thinking because, well, something tells me we're thinking the same thing."

Four remained silent for forty-three seconds. "It wasn't an accident," he stated finally.

Len leaned in, mumbling a little softer, "Elaborate."

"It wasn't an accident when Six died back there," he said.

Len sat back a bit. "Are you saying someone was trying to kill her? Why would someone want her dead?" Len asked.

"That's the thing; I don't know. But something tells me it's not just her. Three's situation is just the same. Somebody is trying to pick people off."

It was a provocative notion. "Why would they do that, though?"

"I'm not sure, but isn't it the only logical explanation? Listen, I _know_ that the fire was no accident, and something tells me these game designers didn't cause it, either. They don't seem to have any control over the game, other than its setup and initiation. So that only leaves us with two options. Either someone from outside has come in to sabotage the game, or the murderer is among us. And, considering the state of this hotel, the latter seems to be the only plausible one."

Len stared at nothing in particular, processing.

It made sense.

Len had already been contemplating the convenient, or, rather, quite the opposite, timing of the fire and the snake bite on Three's hand. Something seemed to be working against the players, for whatever reason. And it only made sense that that something was another player him or herself.

"So what about the fire on floor 14," Len said. "How do you suppose that worked?"

"I've thought about that a lot. Remember when we first flipped the fire switch and nothing happened, but just before that we'd flipped the switch for fixation. My guess is that the fixation switch deactivated the fire switch, but when you accidentally hit the vital air switch number 11, you reactivated it. However, if this is the case, whoever activated the fire switch after the fact must have had prior knowledge of the puzzle, or just very good intuition. Either way, I'm positive it was no accident."

It hurt Len on the inside, knowing that he probably had an even bigger hand in Six's death than previously thought. His stomach twisted and he had to hold himself back from retching. "Who do you think it is…?" he forced around his gag reflex.

Four paused for a moment so short that Len hardly noticed. "To be honest I was almost sure it was you, until you passed out in the infirmary at the sight of the blood on the walls… I knew someone like that could never follow through with murder."

_But I _did_ murder someone_, Len thought, but quickly shook the thought from his mind.

"Now I'm not really sure," Four murmured. He glanced over to the other side of the room, where the other five were working and cleaning in a hectic frenzy. "For now, I don't think it's safe to trust anyone."

Len nodded. He glanced back at the others, meeting a pair of narrowed blue eyes for a split second. Seven turned away lithely, working to help Eight with some of her work. _Could it be that she…?_ Len shook his head again. Even if she _was_ behind something, Len couldn't let anyone know he was suspicious. Plus, it was more than likely that she'd just gotten caught staring, and had no idea what either of the men had been talking about. Len brushed the issue aside.

"Any luck over there, guys?" Two called out toward Len and Four.

Just in time for Seven to exclaim, "I found something!"

The nine players gathered around the coffee table to see if the sheet that Seven found matched the torn page. To everyone's relief, it did, and Seven flattened out the page against the book. Faint whimpers could be heard coming from Three, and Len tried his hardest to keep the sounds at the back of his mind.

"What does it say?" Nine asked from beside Three. She was squatting next to the couch and, thus, didn't have the best angle.

"'Page 247, paragraph 3, line 3, words 5 and 6.' Okay so I guess that's some sort of direction," Seven said, turning the pages of the book. "Page 247… third paragraph… three… word five, here we go. It says… 'Moscato D'asti'?"

"Isn't that a type of wine?" Eight asked.

"I wouldn't know. How about we go to the bar and start a search for it?"

Seven, Eight, Two, and Five headed over to the bar to start looking, meanwhile One, Four, and Len hung back with Three and Nine. One took a cautious, calculating step toward Len, and then another, then another. They stood ear-to mouth, near the same height because of One's heels.

"I heard you talking earlier," she murmured, "about our little serial killer problem."

_Ba-thump. _"… And?" Len said.

"I completely agree with what you're saying, but… if I were you, I'd be keeping my mouth shut."

Len exhaled slowly. "That almost sounds threatening."

"Take it how you like. I'm just trying to help you save your tail. In this situation we're in, it's better not to stack the cards against you." At that, she turned away and headed toward the others. Len stood still and silent, waiting, letting his mind wander through the information he had gathered.

He decided he would have to observe the others carefully, narrow down the suspects. He would tell no one else about his observations, and he would act as he had been acting before. As far as anyone else would know, nothing had changed.

And it hadn't. Nothing _had_ changed. He was just playing the game.

The sound of a bottle breaking brought Len out of his thoughts, followed by "We found the key!"

Four and Len helped Three stand and slowly walk across the room to the locked door that led to the next staircase. Seven pushed the key into the keyhole and turned. It was unlocked. The door opened

The bell had not yet chimed. For the first time, they were ahead of the clock.

_clutterclutterclutter_

**Here's the part where I try to explain myself as to why it took so long to come out with this update.**

**I could tell you every single detail of everything that ever happened but that would take too long.**

**So I'll just say that I got busy.  
Really  
Freaking  
Busy.  
School just started back up two weeks ago for me (which is awful) and I've been staying up until midnight every night for the past three nights to work on this story for you guys after homework. I'm a senior in high school this year but I'm taking a class at a local college on top of that so the workload is pretty rough.**

** T**

**I expect this story to get pretty gruesome next chapter, so depending on how I go about writing it, THE RATING MAY GO UP TO M FOR VIOLENCE.**

**If any of you may be opposed to me changing the rating for any reason, please don't hesitate to tell me in a review or a PM. **

**Otherwise, thank you so, so very much for reading like I really, really appreciate all of the positive feedback I've gotten for this story. You guys are so awesome.**

**YOU GUYS ARE SUCH GOOD REVIEWERS ASDFGHJKL PLEASE CONTINUE TO DO THAT.**

**Btw, if any of you are interested in things like swimming anime or attack on titan, feel free to check me out/follow my on tumblr. Pen name: sexythewhale**

**Thanks for stICKING WITH ME THROUGH THICK AND THIN.**

**Until next time~**


	5. Thirteen

**One: brunette woman that works at a bar  
Two: blue-haired man with congenital analgesia  
Three: timid, pink-haired high school girl from Detroit  
Four: salmon-haired man that works in psychology  
Five: green-haired boy in college, Six's brother  
****Six: green-haired girl in high school, Five's sister****  
Seven: tall, blonde college graduate  
Eight: teal-haired waitress with two children  
Nine: female exchange student with short blonde hair**

**Anonymous Reviewers:**

**Isabella314:**

**Thank you thank you thank you my dearest! Lucky for you (and everybody, I suppose) I managed to get the update out in record time! Or, okay, maybe not quite that fast but still.**

**As for your observation, it's a very interesting theory that you've composed, there. To be perfectly honest with you, I hadn't given the idea that much thought, but it would certainly be GRUESOME if that were the case don't you think? ;b uhuhuu~**

**Anyway, hope you can find the story here with its new rating and all, lol~!**

**WARNING: This chapter contains depictions of gore and violence. A word of discretion for the fainter of heart.**

_ZzZzZzzZz_

**_Thirteen_**

_ZzZzZzzZz_

One. Two. Three. Four. Five. Six.

Len and Four carried Three up six flights of stairs. A 13 hung over a set of double doors that were in much better condition than the doors of floor 7. After a few moments' rest, Len reached out for the door's handle and pulled.

He should have been paying attention to the fine gray powder that settled on the floor at the edge of the door and clung to his skin when he twisted the doorknob. He should have been paying attention to the faintly sour tinge to the air and the way that it stuck to the back of his throat when he breathed in. He should have paid attention.

But he didn't, so he had no way to prepare himself for what was behind the door to the thirteenth floor.

The smell of raw meat and burnt flesh hit him like a punch in the gut, so powerful that he vomited instantly—or, he would have, had his stomach not been empty. Everything stood in varying hues of gray, black and red. Above him and to the right was a hole in the ceiling. Rubble made a pile near the corner of the room, and there was a distinct crimson stain crawling down the wall near the hole in the ceiling.

Len took a cautious step forward only to jump back immediately when his foot hit something.

An _arm_.

Len fell backwards, into the arms of Nine, who quickly shook him back to life.

It looked as if the limb had been violently ripped away from its body. It was scorched black in most places, and red and distorted in others. The sullied fingers appeared to be torn up at the nails, as if they'd been scratching at something that couldn't be removed.

Len didn't want to think about it, but he knew. Floor fourteen was only just above them. That arm belonged to Six, and the damage to her hand had been done in her final efforts to save herself…

From blowing up.

A splat brought Len back from his thoughts and he looked to the corner of the room where a pile of entrails had just fallen from the ceiling. The yellowish fluid from Six's intestines seeped into the already grossly stained carpet, pooling up in some areas and spreading in others.

Someone really did vomit that time, but it wasn't Len, and thankfully they'd had the decency to do so out on the stairwell instead of in front of everybody. Five returned to the room, eyes red and puffy, wiping the corner of his mouth.

Len didn't know how to proceed. He looked around for a moderately clear pathway to follow, only to find a head a few feet away. It was connected to its neck and one shoulder, but bent at an odd angle. Half of the face was burned beyond recognition, the other half coated in ash and several pieces of shrapnel stuck into the skin. Most of its hair was burned off, and none of it the signature green color that Len remembered as Six's. Its eyes were open wide, as she had no eyelids left, and they bore deep into Len's face. He averted his gaze.

Part of Len wanted to run, far, far away, away from all of this, and the other part continued to stare at the stomach still hanging grossly from the ceiling and wondered idly if the esophagus had gotten caught on something on the floor above, because of course it would have to be caught somewhere with Six's head on the level below. Half of him was screaming on the inside while the other half stared at the lung lying near six's shoulder, swearing it could still see respiration. It was surreal. It was _un_real. Len detatched the image before him from reality. The oozing fluids and swollen flesh were a dream to him, a figment of his imagination. If he wanted he could just will them away. Len closed his eyes.

_Dong. Dong. Dong. Dong. Dong._

Somewhere, a clock rang out five times. Len opened his eyes, waking with a start. Where was he? What time was it? Len rubbed the sleep from his eyes and sat up. Was this his bed? Len looked around the room he was in. The walls were a creamy white color, and a second bed rested across from his, draped in orange sheets. He looked down to see that his own sheets were black and white. Was this his dorm room?

"Morning, sleepy head," a girl said from the doorway. Len looked toward the voice and saw Nine standing in front of him. _What is she doing in my dorm room?_ "Or should I say good evening. It's five o'clock at night."

"Nine, what are you…" Len began.

"What?" she asked, almost looking offended.

"Nine, what are you doing here in my room?"

She cocked her head. "Who are you calling 'Nine'? I'm _Rin_. Your _girlfriend_, remember?" Nine tried to ignore the blatant shock on Len's face. "I knew I should have come to wake you up earlier. You must have been having some crazy dream to forget your own girlfriend."

That was right. Rin was his girlfriend back from college. Len almost chuckled to himself as he scratched the back of his head, looking down. "Yeah," he said, rubbing the spot above his heart, totally smooth and painless. "It sure was."

"Well you can tell me all about it over dinner," Rin said, cheerily throwing a t-shirt and jeans his way. "You promised we'd go out for pizza tonight, but I just know you'd forget, so that's why I came to get you."

"Did you, now?" Len asked jokingly, though he honestly didn't remember making that promise. His extremely vivid dream seemed to have fogged up his mind.

Len was up and dressed in a second, and he and Rin had driven up to the pizzeria before he knew it. They grabbed a booth and waited for a waitress to take their drink order.

Rin leaned forward eagerly across the table. "So," she said, "tell me about this dream that you were having."

Len rested his chin on his hands and looked up. "It's all a little fuzzy now, but I remember I was in this giant hotel with nine other people—and you were there, too—and we were part of some sort of game or experiment or whatever where we had to solve puzzles and stuff to escape or else we'd, like, explode or something. It was really weird."

Rin furrowed her eyebrows. "That is pretty weird."

A young brunette woman came by to get their drink orders, and they both got water.

"So what else happened? Can you remember anything?"

Len rubbed his head and sighed. "Not really. I remember being really stressed out and all, but no specifics."

"Do you remember any of the puzzles or anything?"

"Not really. I think there was something about, like, alchemy or some shit like that, but that's it. Like I said, it's fuzzy."

"Weird…"

The blonde waitress came back to our table with our drinks saying that she'd be right back to get our orders. Len thanked her, not failing to notice the way her eyes lingered on him just a second longer than they should have.

"So how about you? Any weird dreams lately?" Len asked.

Rin shook her head. "No… at least, not anything that could compete with yours."

Len laughed. "Well, then, what have you been up to otherwise?"

Rin, sitting beside him now, punched his arm playfully. "I've been hanging around you, dummy."

"Ha, ah, right," Len said. "That dream really was a long one, to screw me up this much."

Our teal-haired waitress returned not a moment later to take our orders and rushed back to the kitchen rather quickly. Something seemed odd about her but Len couldn't put his finger on what is was.

"Did something seem a little off about her to you?" Len asked.

"About the waitress? No, why?" she said, leaning toward me across the table again.

"I don't know, it just seemed—"

"Here you are!" the green-haired waitress interrupted, placing our food in front of us.

"Finally, I'm starving!" Rin said.

"Sorry for the long wait," the waitress apologized with a meek smile.

_What wait?_ Len asked himself. _We were only waiting for a second. And didn't that waitress look… different before?_ Len looked back up only to find that she was gone. He looked down to see an arm, singed and oozing in her place.

This… this wasn't real at all. This was a nightmare.

Len stood up abruptly and tried to dart out of the restaurant, only to trip over a head, a _human_ head, _Six's_ head, on the way out. He tried to scramble to his feet but his limbs had become heavy. He trudged outside to the parking lot, collapsing into his car, Rin totally forgotten inside, or so he thought. His skin touched something warm and wet when he sat down. He looked to the passenger seat to see her, Rin, lifeless with a huge hole blown out of her chest. Half of her jaw was missing and pieces of her ribs poked out at odd angles. The entire car was covered in pieces of Rin. Len tried to scream but his voice had left him. He smelled something, a distinctly sour smell, before looking out of his front window and seeing him, a blurry figure in a white suit, walking away with an unreadable look on his unrecognizable face. Len started to fade, and felt the hard plastic of his steering wheel against his forehead before he blacked out.

_ZzZzZzzZz_

Len woke up and his head was throbbing. Around him were the bodies of the other eight players, near motionless save for the slow rise and fall of their torsos.

Len rubbed his forehead where it was sore. All of that was a dream. The hotel was real, as were the people inside of it. Len looked behind him and found himself staring at Nine. What had her name been in his dream? Rin? Len wondered if all of that was really just a dream. Parts of it seemed so real, they were almost like memories. Len shook his head. That wasn't possible. He had absolutely no recollection of his life before waking up in this decrepit hotel.

Hearing a groan from his side, Len looked over to see Four pushing himself up off of the floor and rubbing the side of his head.

"Wh-what…?" he stammered, glancing around wildly. "We… something must have put us to sleep," he said. Len cringed at the thought. How long had they been out? Was it minutes? Hours?

A look of terror crossed four's face. "What is it?" Len asked urgently.

He said only one word. "Three."

They both shot up to look for her. She was leaning against the door frame, next to the pile of burnt rubble and yellowish fluid. Len crouched down next to her and grabbed her wrist. Her pulse was weak, but there. He started trying to shake her awake, calling out her number several times before her eyes opened, very slowly. Len let out a gusty breath. The ruckus they'd created was enough to bring the other six back to wakefulness.

"Ugh. What happened?" Eight said, sitting up in the opposite corner of the room.

"We must have been gassed," Two said gruffly. He sat up and started to examine himself intently. "Can someone tell me if I'm bleeding anywhere?" he asked, standing with his back to us and running a hand up against the grain of his hair. The glowing 13 on the back of his neck sent a shiver down Len's spine. They needed to get moving as quickly as possible.

"You're good," One said, groaning as she sat up, "I, on the other hand, may have a problem." She held her forehead as she spoke, and when she removed her hand, Len had to look away. He heard her gasp and she quickly replaced her hand.

Len looked over as Four started to tear away the sleeve of his shirt. "Come here, One," he said. "Thank God this shirt was made like shit," he added under his breath. One crawled toward him, over Six's arm, and sat in front of him, the hint of water at her eyelashes. Four's arm flexed around a bruised lump on his exposed bicep as he wrapped strips of fabric around the cut above her eye.

It struck Len in a way that he didn't expect. He clutched his forehead and rubbed his eyes with his thumbs. This was real. It was really happening. And he was terrified.

In the distance, a bell could be heard, ringing one, two… six times.

Four finished wrapping One's head and walked over to Three to help Len lift her. She was too weak to stand anymore, so Four ended up carrying her, agreeing to switch out with Len as needed. After maneuvering around the rubble at the beginning of the hallway, they found that the floor was totally empty. No furniture, not even a door. There were several twists and turns in the hallway so that Len became sufficiently disoriented by the time they reached a dark staircase.

Four appeared to be tiring, so Len went ahead and relieved him of Three, so that they wouldn't have to try switching out on the stairs, especially if there were no lights. Len secured Three's arms around his neck, though he noticed one of her arms was significantly limper than the other, and that realization made him weak in the knees.

The staircase was even more disorienting than the hallway. It was pitch black all the way, and while it started in a descent, not two flights passed before they started to go up again, without a platform between the flights. Len heard at least two people trip before him and, while he knew to be cautious at that point, still almost tripped himself. He called back a warning to the others; his voice echoed off of the empty walls.

At the top of the staircase was a short, straight hallway, a closed elevator at its end the only exit.

_ZzZzZzzZz_

**A/n: Could you tell that it was all a dream? I tried to make it as blatantly obvious as possible, but you still have to pay attention to the little details, I suppose.**

**Urgh. Sorry the writing's a little rough in this one. I totally did not expect this chapter to go the way that it did. And I even accidentally fit a motif in there. Like I literally did not plan on doing that but well you know how that goes.**

**BUT I UPDATED QUICKLY AREN'T YOU PROUD OF ME I'M REALLY PROUD OF ME YEY. Plus I'm suuuper excited about the "puzzle" on the next floor, though it's more straightforward than the other puzzles I've had in here. Merp. But I even gave you a little preview of it, so you should be excited too~~~**

**Once again, I'd like to thank all of you for the continued support of this story, and an extra special thanks to all of my reviewers. You make me feel awesome. Cookies for all!**

**I'll do my best to get the next chapter up as soon as I can, but you know how like school and stuff goes so like meh.**

**THANK YOU ALL SO MUCH FOR READING, AND PLEASE REVIEW!**


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